Original question: Why did the Colosseum in Rome in the past collapse in half?
It didn’t. If we went from this:
To this:
It’s because of a combination of natural disasters and human intervention.
After the fall of the empire, Amphiteatrum Flavian has been, in order:
- A cemetery — hence the legends about ghosts and demons that characterized this place for all the Middle Ages.
- A castle
- A church
- A place where Popes and Roman nobles could find materials to build their palaces. You could find pieces of the Colosseum in Barberini palace, for example. This would go on until 1744, when Pope Benedict XiV prohibited the sacking.
- A church again.
- A shelter for homeless people.
This had been common practice for centuries when Goethe described it:
The Colosseum, closed at night, it’s a marvelous sight; inside in a little chapel lives an hermit and under the archways beggars take shelter.
They had lit a fire on the ground and a breeze drove the smoke on the arena, covering the ruins, while gigantic gloomy walls towered above; we stood by the entrance and looked at that prodigy and the moon shined bright and quiet in the sky. Little by little, the smoke spread through walls, doorways and openings…
Apart from the poetic scene, can you imagine how much damage would centuries of smokes and fires do?
And on top of that, the poor thing fell victim to two earthquakes (849 and 1349) and some not-so-good repair works in the early XIX century.
It’s a good thing it didn’t collapse in half, though, because a prophecy says:
Quamdiu stabit Colyseus / Stabit et Roma; / Quando cadet Colyseus / Cadet et Roma; / Quando cadet Roma / Cadet et mundus.
Meaning: «as long as the Colosseum stands, Rome stands. When the Colosseum will fall, Rome will fall. When Rome falls, the world will follow.»
Soooo… Yeah, keep going strong big guy 😂
